


Like Prey

by AshesFall (Cloud_Nine)



Series: Lucky Sevens [6]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-23
Updated: 2016-10-23
Packaged: 2018-08-24 05:58:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8359885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cloud_Nine/pseuds/AshesFall
Summary: The Rookie Nine spar together. Or, Kurenai sees something in Team 7's eyes.





	

**Author's Note:**

> So the next planned part of this series is actually the Chūnin Exams I'm estimating about it'll be about 5-7 chapters so, keep an eye out!

Kakashi flipped through his book casually, as if his students weren’t fighting twenty feet in front of him. On his left, Asuma stood arms crossed with a lit cigarette in his hand and on his right Kurenai kept her hands remarkably close to her kunai pouch. 

“Your brats are vicious, Kakashi,” Asuma remarked watching his kunoichi student go flying from a punch from Kakashi’s pink haired student. 

Kurenai winced as her own Inuzuka student took a heavy boot to the face from Kakashi’s Uzumaki. 

Kakashi made a noise of agreement and without warning tilted his head to the side to avoid several shurikens his Uchiha student had thrown. 

Asuma and Kurenai watched as Team 7 herded the other two teams further and further apart. It was like watching a pack of dogs pick off the weak from a herd. They had started with Team 10, the younger Ino-Shika-Cho team worked better together than Team 8 so it made sense for Team 7 to separate them first. 

Naruto had created a host of clones to deal with Team 8, leading the tracking team on a merry chase before Shino grew irritated enough to send his bugs to dispel the clones. 

It mostly devolved into an all our brawl by this point. 

“Ouch,” Asuma muttered seeing Kurenai’s young Hyūga get a hold of Kakashi’s kunoichi. 

Kakashi hummed softly as he turned the page. 

“You could at least pretend to pay attention, Kakashi,” Kurenai scolded having grown steadily more irritated with her colleague. “How are you supposed to help them improve if you aren’t watching?” 

Asuma coughed awkwardly. He, and Kakashi the man saw everything even with one eye and a book in front of his nose, had seen the looks Kurenai had been giving him his the training exercise had started. From the moment Team 7 had arrived, an hour late, Kakashi had barely spared his team any attention. The young female jōnin sensei hadn’t approved. 

Kurenai was a good kunoichi, but she was pretty green as a jōnin. She wasn’t familiar with the history of Konoha’s last Hatake shinobi. She had likely heard about his squad, being trained by the Fourth. She had likely heard his epithet, Sharingan no Kakashi. She had probably heard the whispers of his time in ANBU. Asuma knew she was aware of what had happened during his first mission outside the village with his team. But she still didn’t know, she wasn’t aware of just who she was scolding and that left Asuma feeling awkward. 

“I know what they need to improve on,” Kakashi answered simply, still not looking away from his book. “I think you need to be watching your team.” 

Asuma withheld a sigh. That was going to set her off. 

“What do you mean?” The kunoichi demanded. 

“My squad is holding back,” Kakashi admitted dryly. “You’d see that if you actually looked. I trained them to be entirely lethal and if they weren’t pulling their punches, you would be minus an Inuzuka right now.” 

Kurenai’s eyes flickered back to the spar and paused. Sasuke and Naruto had a tight grip on Kiba’s arms, Akamaru was nowhere to be seen. 

“I’ve seen them tear a man apart in that position,” Kakashi said finally looking away from his book. “They, quite literally, tore flesh from bone until there was nothing left.” 

Kurenai tensed, barely holding herself back from stepping in and rushing to her student’s aid. 

“He had been chasing us for three days, I was nearly unconscious from chakra depletion, Sakura was protecting me and the boys got lucky and caught him when he snuck into our camp,” Kakashi said telling the story, his eye still locked onto his students. “We couldn’t risk chakra flares and he had no weapons on us. So they each took an arm and pulled. 

Naruto and Sasuke seemed to be reacting to their sensei’s words. They tightened their grip on Kiba’s arms and pulled the boy upright before using their leverage to slam him onto the ground. 

“That’s new,” Kakashi admitted seeing the move. “Your student is unconscious but mostly unharmed.”

“They are just genin,” Kurenai said watching Team 7 regroup with the rest of Team 8 and Team 10 facing off against them. 

“No, they are shinobi.” 

\--

Shikamaru groaned softly and pushed himself to his feet. 

“Anything broken?” Asuma-sensei asked looking over the nine rookie genin. 

“Feels like everything,” Chōji remarked pulling Ino up. A few feet away Shino and Hinata had a bleary-eyed Kiba’s arms around their shoulders helping their teammate stand. 

“What do I do with Akamaru?” Naruto asked cradling the tired puppy. The sunny blond looked entirely too chipper and even Sakura and Sasuke were giving him nasty looks. 

“Just slip him in Kiba’s hood,” Sakura suggested from her spot leaning against Sasuke. Naruto nodded and limped over to deposit the puppy in his partner’s hood. 

“You all did well,” Asuma-sensei said watching the kids pull themselves up. “You’ve all improved a lot since you graduated from the academy.” Some more than others went without saying. 

“One-on-one matches now,” Kakashi said butting in. Teams 8 and 10 groaned but Team 7 just scowled at their squad leader. 

“Now, now children you hardly ever get to go into battle fully rested,” the silver haired shinobi teased. “Sakura, you verses Chōji first.” 

The short haired girl grinned and nodded. 

\--

Sakura made quick work of Chōji. In a few years, when the Akimichi boy harnessed his immense strength then he would pose a threat but now, as Sakura developed her own strengths, literally, the boy didn’t stand a chance. 

Young Akimichis were trained to work with young Yamanakas and Naras. They didn’t begin learning to fight alone until after they became chūnin because it was unlikely they would fight alone until then. Sakura, who was developing a monstrous strength so like Tsunade’s own but yet so fundamentally different, batted Chōji around like a cat toy. 

Kurenai watched as the kids continued to spar. Kiba sat out, as he was still seeing double from Naruto and Sasuke’s attack during the free-for-all. Shikamaru very gently defeated Hinata and Naruto overwhelmed Ino with clones before ending it with a sucker punch. 

Sasuke took longer with Shino, the Aburame’s bugs steadily eating away at the Uchiha’s chakra until Sasuke had enough and torched the bugs with a large, almost out of control, fire jutsu. In the end, all nine genins were tired, bruised and filthy. The jōnin instructors bundled up their students and departed. 

Later that night Kurenai and Asuma met up for a drink. 

“I hope they pass the Exams in one try,” Kurenai said sipping her sake. 

“Oh?” Asuma asked. 

“Whatever Kakashi taught them while they are on the run, they are too strong to be a genin,” Kurenai. “I’ll enter my team because I have to, but I know they won’t advance.” 

Asuma nodded, he felt the same way. 

“Team 7 is different. They are vicious,” Kurenai admitted. 

“They’re still just kids,” Asuma reminded her. “Strong kids, sure, but they are still just genin.” 

No matter how good they were Asuma knew he and Kurenai could wipe the floor with them like any good jōnin could. If they kept advancing like this, though, in a few years Team 7 would rival even their jōnin sensei. 

Kurenai shook her head. The genjutsu mistress wasn’t explaining it properly. “I know that, but … There was something in their eyes.” 

Kurenai took another sip of her drink and frowned. “Kakashi has the same look, but I can’t explain it, they look at us, everyone like … like…” 

“Like prey?” Asuma asked finally understanding what the kunoichi was saying. 

“Yes!” Kurenai exclaimed. “That’s it!” 

“It’s because we are. In Kakashi’s world, you are in two groups, pack or prey. Those kids? They were outside the walls for a long time with just Kakashi, it makes sense they would see the world in the same way, wouldn’t it?” Asuma asked shrugging his shoulders. “I don’t know Kakashi very well but Gai knows him better than anyone and he explained it to me once when we went drinking. Eventually, you’ll stop noticing because the kids will get better at hiding it, but that’s how they look at everyone now.” 

“Like a wolf looks at a rabbit,” Kurenai said tapping her fingers on their shared table. 

“Exactly.”

**Author's Note:**

> Like my fic? Wanna talk to me about it?? Find me on discord! https://discord.gg/RAbVVjQ


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